Preparation Or Overkill?

Battery of tests precedes FCAT

If you have a child in public school, you know all about the FCAT. But you may not know as much about the alphabet soup of smaller tests that students must take to get them ready for the big one.

DIBELS, DRA and DRP, FORF, SDRT and SRI are among the tests students have taken this school year in advance of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, which starts next month. Children have taken a few tests twice already and will take some again after FCAT.

Some educators fear they're approaching testing overkill. They worry the tests eat into teaching time and create fatigue by the time FCAT arrives.

This new crop of benchmark -- or "continuous improvement" -- tests dictated by federal, state and local rules has two main goals:

*Pinpoint who is struggling, provide them with help and then check again to see if skills have improved.

*Predict how youngsters will do on the FCAT, the series of state-mandated exams given to public-school students in grades three to 11.

The testing is an indication of how high the stakes are for FCAT, which is used to help grade schools, judge teachers and determine whether students are promoted or graduate.

Others worry that students grow weary of bubble answer sheets, timed readings and computer diagnostics. An Orange County 10th-grader might take three different reading tests.

"If we expect our teachers to help students pass the FCAT, we need to make time spent teaching, rather than time spent testing, the priority," Ralph Barrett, a longtime Osceola County educator, wrote in an e-mail.

Barrett, who works at New Dimensions High School, last year served as president of a statewide organization of curriculum supervisors. He conducted a statewide survey that found up to a third of the school year was spent on these new tests.

Parents don't always see the results of testing, and even when they do, may find them hard to understand.

As a member of Lake Mary's school advisory council, Miller understands why schools use so many tests -- but that doesn't mean she likes them. "We're tested to death," she said. "We're stressed out."

Most school districts have added tests to their arsenal in the past few years, convinced of the benefits. Palm Beach County's school district recently announced that one of its F-grade high schools was on track to do better this year, a conclusion based on how its students were doing on pre-FCAT testing.

Testing concept not new

The idea of repeatedly testing students to monitor their progress began in the 1970s. Educators wanted to ensure that students with learning disabilities were being well taught, said Stanely Deno, a professor of educational psychology and special education at the University of Minnesota, who developed early-progress tests.

Progress testing flourished under the federal government's No Child Left Behind law and its Reading First grant program. The 2002 law mandates standardized tests to judge school performance.

Private testing companies were eager to supply them. The Web site for SRI, for example, boasts that its tests help schools when the "need for concrete, reliable information on all students' reading progress has never been greater."

Deno said some of the tests work well by exposing students who need immediate help.

"The real question is, are there too many types of different tests?" he said.

Fifth-grade teacher Claudia Evangelista, who works at Blankner School in Orlando, said Orange's tests help her figure out who needs help with what. "Sometimes it solidifies what you already know. Sometimes it gives you the 'aha' moment: 'This is where he is struggling,' " she said.

Other educators worry about striking a balance.

"We can't test kids all the time," said Don Travis, principal of Spirit Elementary in Deltona. "Testing and evaluation takes time and so does instruction."

Blankner Principal Polly Roper said if it were up to her, she would get rid of some tests. Even though they point out struggling students, teachers would spot those kids anyway, she said.

But because the tests are required, her teachers try to stay low-key, giving the tests without the intensity and pressure that comes with FCAT, Roper said.

"I try not to get too anxious about it," she added, "because I get anxious enough at FCAT."